Inside the Deal: A C-Suite Roundtable on Growth, Risk, and Opportunity

James Jones is a 20-year veteran of the commercial bank industry, serving as the Fulton Bank middle market banking execute for MD, DC, & VA. Throughout his professional career, he has also been a business owner/operator entrepreneur with businesses in several industries, founded a private equity fund, and ran a platform company for a PE firm. These experiences provide a unique perspective to commercial banking.

Dr. Chad Gordon is a nationally recognized leader in craniofacial and neuroplastic surgery whose career bridges academic medicine and high-impact medical innovation,, while also straddling the world of entrepreneurship. At Johns Hopkins, he serves as Professor of Plastic Surgery and Neurosurgery and is the Director of Neuroplastic Surgery for the School of Medicine. This new specialty was pioneered by Dr Gordon over the last decade, and is a new burgeoning field focused on complex cranial reconstruction and newfound neuroplastic surgery principles, with particular expertise in treating neurosurgical patients presenting with challenging scalp issues and large-sized cranial defects. 

Over the course of his 15-year academic career, Dr. Gordon has built a reputation for advancing surgical techniques that improve neurological outcomes and structural reconstruction, contributing extensively to peer-reviewed literature, and leading multidisciplinary teams to best integrate neurosurgery, plastic surgery, and biomedical engineering. His work at Johns Hopkins emphasizes not only technical excellence in the operating room but also translational research—moving innovations from concept to clinical application to industry - all in an attempt to improve patient care. Most recently, and building upon a decade-long foundation of entrepreneurship, Dr. Gordon founded CraniUS Therapeutics in 2021. Over the span of six years, CraniUS is now well accepted as a leading, pioneering neurotechnology company developing implantable brain-skull implants to best monitor and manage lifelong therapies for patients suffering from chronic brain disease and the challenges related to the blood-brain barrier. 

Under his leadership, CraniUS Therapeutics has progressed from an academic concept into a privately-owned company, now on the cusp of much-anticipated, gamechanging technology. Over its first five years, this company has secured significant non-dilutive funding from well-respected entities such as the State of Maryland Build our Future Innovation Program and NIH Blueprint MedTech initiative, as well as raising substantial private capital through multiple financing rounds to the tune of $40 million.

The company’s technology, known as the NeuroPASS platform, is ingeniously designed to address a major unmet clinical need—providing state-of-the-art, therapeutic access and infrastructure to the brain for indefinite access—thereby positioning their disruptive products at the intersection of neurosurgery, implantable devices, and digital health. Dr. Gordon’s dual role as surgeon and entrepreneur has enabled him to guide CraniUS through key regulatory and development milestones, including advancing toward various FDA clearance pathways. Collectively, his career reflects a rare combination of clinical leadership, academic scholarship, and entrepreneurial execution, with a focus on transforming the standard-of-care for patients with neurological disease or injury, and for those searching optionality to receive direct brain medicine delivery - unafflicted by the blood-brain barrier.

Misti Hagy is the Chief Financial Officer of Fawn Industries and Sienna Spirits Group. Misti has spent over 20 years leading and scaling financial operations from start up to exit while strengthening business performance to promote rapid growth through the use of process improvement, kpi identification, strategic planning, and a concentration on mergers, acquisitions, fundraising, and exit strategy.